I, the Jury (1947)

Mike Hammer tracks down killer of best friend, watches her strip then shoots her

I really don't get it.

The writing is fast, I mean the fastest I've seen. Things happen on a page that other books would take chapters to tell. Wham, bam and it's done. Everything is dialed down to 11 and all the characters are ridiculous to the point of parody. Despite a convoluted plot there's no mystery at any point. The protagonist is indestructible and no one goes to jail on his watch. ( )

The mystery was good but Mike Hammer himself was dreadful. I can see the appeal of his character to a certain segment of the male population - he is the virile male who is tough and (apparently) has so much appeal that every woman he meets wants to have sex with him and he pretty much always gets his way, even if his way is illegal and/or immoral. Sort of like the movie version of James Bond without the suavity and international travel.

For example, the title of this book refers to the fact that Hammer decides early in the book that he will constitute the judge & jury of his friend's killer and will "take him out" in the same manner that the murderer used to kill his friend. Not only does he decide this but he tells the cop in charge of the case, who doesn't approve but still continues to feed Hammer information (!) ( )

The cover for my copy is different, but it is a Signet book published in 1947 from the looks of it, so close enough to the one depicted here in good reads. I got in the mood for some hard-boiled, so I am rereading it. We'll see how it stacks up.

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Once I got a chance to sit through it, I zipped through it. I enjoy this type of tale a lot. Mike Hammer pulls no punches. This is a great example of the hard boiled genre. For modern readers, I will warn that this is not a PC book, so if you happen to be "sensitive," go read something else. When Spillane died, one of the obituaries compared Mike Hammer to Dirty Harry. I think that would fit. Sure, the times may change, but a lot of us still like our heroes hard, with a strong sense of justice, and who don't let any bureaucratic nonsense stop them. As for the tale, the action pretty much grabs you from the first page and goes on to the twist at the end, which I will not reveal. If you like hard boiled, then this is for you.

This was written back in the forties, so it reflects its time, which for me is one reason I like reading this kind of fiction. Just to get a bit of a glimpse. But one also reads it just for the pure escapism. For me at least, this is one of my favorites now. I will be looking for other works featuring Mike Hammer. Since I got my copy of this one second hand, I think it may be fun to find others in second hand stores. We'll see how it goes. ( )

Mike Hammer sets out to punish his friend's killer, and falls in love along the way. Hard-boiled detective story. ( )